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Sleepwalking to Surrender: Dealing with Terrorism in Pakistan
Pakistan is still on the brink of becoming a failed state as a consequence of its decades-old practice of using proxy warriors in the region. Because of the weakening of the writ of the state, neither governance nor the economy can function normally; in fact, some say the two strong entities in today’s Pakistan are the Taliban and the army.
Non-state actors and the extremist terror outfits they control, pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities and receive ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state. The army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda. Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct and the state’s willingness to enter into ‘peace talks’ with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism.
Khaled Ahmed is Pakistan’s most respected columnist and his formidable expertise on the ideologies of extremism is internationally acknowledged. In Sleepwalking to Surrender, he analyses the terrible toll terrorism has taken on Pakistan and appraises the portents for the future.
Non-state actors and the extremist terror outfits they control, pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities and receive ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state. The army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda. Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct and the state’s willingness to enter into ‘peace talks’ with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism.
Khaled Ahmed is Pakistan’s most respected columnist and his formidable expertise on the ideologies of extremism is internationally acknowledged. In Sleepwalking to Surrender, he analyses the terrible toll terrorism has taken on Pakistan and appraises the portents for the future.
- GenresInternational Relations
470 pages, Hardcover
Published August 7, 2016
3 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Khaled Ahmed
21 books9 followersKhaled Ahmed was a Pakistani journalist and writer. He received the Presidential Pride of Performance Medal in 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 8, 2022
The dominant narrative of the entire book has been summed up by the author in two paragraphs.
In the first of these he says:
“Muslims produce their best men when they are not ruling the state they live in. The most gifted intellectuals, like Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Abduh, survived only under the British Empire because their works were too ‘groundbreaking’ for their co-religionists. When Muslims acquire a state they go into a kind of recidivist trance: ‘give us utopia or nothing’. They make noises about the ‘modern Islamic’ state but the moment such a state is created, they start squabbling over it. Despite their denial of ‘theology’, this is all they have when thinking of the state. They deny the presence of a clergy in Islam but their society is crawling with clergy, and despite avowals to the contrary, they slavishly follow their frozen-in-time medieval doctrines, savagely discriminatory to women and non-Muslims.”
Thereafter he says,
“The other thing that has Muslims in a tizzy is education.
If you want to educate yourself, never ask a Muslim what to do. He will accept modern education, saying the Quran is for all times, including modern times, and therefore allows modern education.
But he baulks the moment you say ‘secular’ education.
The age of reason, which gave us modern education, is not his cup of tea because what he understands by ‘reason’ is ‘deductive logic’. He accepts the discipline of economics while ideologically rejecting the concepts of banking and savings. He is ‘literalist’, therefore he can be a banker without accepting the institution he serves…”
I rest my case.
In the first of these he says:
“Muslims produce their best men when they are not ruling the state they live in. The most gifted intellectuals, like Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Abduh, survived only under the British Empire because their works were too ‘groundbreaking’ for their co-religionists. When Muslims acquire a state they go into a kind of recidivist trance: ‘give us utopia or nothing’. They make noises about the ‘modern Islamic’ state but the moment such a state is created, they start squabbling over it. Despite their denial of ‘theology’, this is all they have when thinking of the state. They deny the presence of a clergy in Islam but their society is crawling with clergy, and despite avowals to the contrary, they slavishly follow their frozen-in-time medieval doctrines, savagely discriminatory to women and non-Muslims.”
Thereafter he says,
“The other thing that has Muslims in a tizzy is education.
If you want to educate yourself, never ask a Muslim what to do. He will accept modern education, saying the Quran is for all times, including modern times, and therefore allows modern education.
But he baulks the moment you say ‘secular’ education.
The age of reason, which gave us modern education, is not his cup of tea because what he understands by ‘reason’ is ‘deductive logic’. He accepts the discipline of economics while ideologically rejecting the concepts of banking and savings. He is ‘literalist’, therefore he can be a banker without accepting the institution he serves…”
I rest my case.
August 9, 2016
Most incisive account, and despite being columns and op-eds, not all dated and vital to understand Pakistan and its travails. The one on the Seven Furies is the best..
January 6, 2018
Pakistan : An experiment
-------------------------------------
1) This book contains 32 chapters and the author discussed various topics like about the ideology of pakistan, relationship with saudi arabia , the rise of extremist groups like Lashkar-e-taiba, jaish-e-mohammed, Haqqani network, tehreek-e-taliban pakistan etc and how the government , pakistan military and ISI used these non-state actors for there proxy wars against India and Afghanistan, the condition of hazaras and how they are being brutally murdered by laskhar-e-jhangvi , the rise of warlords , gangsters in the city of Karachi which was once conceptualized as a ideal city for governance becomes one of the dangerous city in the world and it is also the largest pashtun city in the planet, he also discussed the rise and cause of Sindhi and Baloch nationalism and the latter resentment against punjabis, the Lal masjid incident of 2007 and how the than ruler pervez Musharraf handled it , the rise of islamization and talibanization of the Pakistani army and the wrong policies of general pervez Kayani which is anti-american and pro-taliban in nature and how they are rewarding terrorist as Martyrs rather than considering than as enemy of the State and his views on tehreek-e-insaf party leader Imran khan, and also on Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali zardari and a cleric by the name of Dr. Tahiurl qadari.
2) The problem with pakistan since it's inception is that they are in a dilemma that what kind of ideology they want to pursue, because pakistan is the first "Islamic state" but those who founded pakistan are not religious as such and due to which there is constant struggle between the State and the religious leaders and the latter wants talibanization of the country and the introduction of shariyat in letter and spirit.
As pakistan supported the USA and saudi arabia in 1979 to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan which they successful did it but after the Soviets left Afghanistan the so called religious warriors returned and settled in Pakistan and demanded the islamization of state and these various groups than came together in various names like TTP , LeT, LeJ, etc and started killing innocent people in Pakistan in the name of islam and they also rejected the Constitution of pakistan and wants what the Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri stated in his treatise by the name of 'The morning and the lamp'. And most of the extremist groups pursuing the policies of al-Zawahiri by killing hazaras, Shia's, Ahmadiyas, and Christian's.As political parties in Pakistan are also divided on the basis of ideology and religion they always cowardly accepted whatever Demands of these extremist groups rather than fighting them and consider them as enemy of the State.
After the judicial murder of pakistan's first elected PM Zulfiqar Ali bhutto in 1979 and after that general Zia started pursuing the policies of Saudis i.e Wahhabism and he himself encouraged religious clerics the result of which is that pakistan is bleeding internally rather than externally and whenever there is an terrorist attack on pakistan their military and government blame it on america , israel and India because they know it is easy to fool their people rather than telling them the truth which is very dangerous. Because of this foolish and wrong policy pakistan remains one of the most isolated nation in the world ,but still their rulers didn't want to change this .
3) This book covers all the major topics which the Pakistan is currently dealing with, but one thing which I didn't like is that the author has repeated many references again and again which he should have avoided.
4) I will recommend this book only to those who are interested in reading about pakistan because it's a heavy read.
I hope u like the review thanks for reading, Jai Hind.
-------------------------------------
1) This book contains 32 chapters and the author discussed various topics like about the ideology of pakistan, relationship with saudi arabia , the rise of extremist groups like Lashkar-e-taiba, jaish-e-mohammed, Haqqani network, tehreek-e-taliban pakistan etc and how the government , pakistan military and ISI used these non-state actors for there proxy wars against India and Afghanistan, the condition of hazaras and how they are being brutally murdered by laskhar-e-jhangvi , the rise of warlords , gangsters in the city of Karachi which was once conceptualized as a ideal city for governance becomes one of the dangerous city in the world and it is also the largest pashtun city in the planet, he also discussed the rise and cause of Sindhi and Baloch nationalism and the latter resentment against punjabis, the Lal masjid incident of 2007 and how the than ruler pervez Musharraf handled it , the rise of islamization and talibanization of the Pakistani army and the wrong policies of general pervez Kayani which is anti-american and pro-taliban in nature and how they are rewarding terrorist as Martyrs rather than considering than as enemy of the State and his views on tehreek-e-insaf party leader Imran khan, and also on Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali zardari and a cleric by the name of Dr. Tahiurl qadari.
2) The problem with pakistan since it's inception is that they are in a dilemma that what kind of ideology they want to pursue, because pakistan is the first "Islamic state" but those who founded pakistan are not religious as such and due to which there is constant struggle between the State and the religious leaders and the latter wants talibanization of the country and the introduction of shariyat in letter and spirit.
As pakistan supported the USA and saudi arabia in 1979 to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan which they successful did it but after the Soviets left Afghanistan the so called religious warriors returned and settled in Pakistan and demanded the islamization of state and these various groups than came together in various names like TTP , LeT, LeJ, etc and started killing innocent people in Pakistan in the name of islam and they also rejected the Constitution of pakistan and wants what the Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri stated in his treatise by the name of 'The morning and the lamp'. And most of the extremist groups pursuing the policies of al-Zawahiri by killing hazaras, Shia's, Ahmadiyas, and Christian's.As political parties in Pakistan are also divided on the basis of ideology and religion they always cowardly accepted whatever Demands of these extremist groups rather than fighting them and consider them as enemy of the State.
After the judicial murder of pakistan's first elected PM Zulfiqar Ali bhutto in 1979 and after that general Zia started pursuing the policies of Saudis i.e Wahhabism and he himself encouraged religious clerics the result of which is that pakistan is bleeding internally rather than externally and whenever there is an terrorist attack on pakistan their military and government blame it on america , israel and India because they know it is easy to fool their people rather than telling them the truth which is very dangerous. Because of this foolish and wrong policy pakistan remains one of the most isolated nation in the world ,but still their rulers didn't want to change this .
3) This book covers all the major topics which the Pakistan is currently dealing with, but one thing which I didn't like is that the author has repeated many references again and again which he should have avoided.
4) I will recommend this book only to those who are interested in reading about pakistan because it's a heavy read.
I hope u like the review thanks for reading, Jai Hind.
August 9, 2020
I started reading this book in 2019, it wasn't current as much has happened since the book was published.
Nonetheless, the book offers good insight into the shortcomings to the military's role in security and foreign policy which in my view is genuine and needs to be accepted. The Non State Actors did more harm than benefit. Using them also prove the weakness in our resolve in national interest as NSAs and hired guns always come with a baggage.
However, the author was too lenient and almost gave clean chits to other stake holders in the region namely the United States, India, and Afghanistan. He presented a black and white picture of the region where all the bad came from Pakistan and others were holy cows. One can't underestimate the role of India to counter Pakistan from the Western border and the support it has received in this context. The United States has interest of its own in the region. You can't picture them as holy cows when they spent money to counter the Soviets in Afghanistan and essentially implanted the seeds of extremism in the region ( with the help of Pakistani generals and Arabs of course).
The crucks is that no one's hand is clean when it comes to foreign policy and national interest, you call the spade a spade. I agree that this book is about the problems and the blunders of the Pakistani state, but it won't hurt to recognize the fact that Pakistan didn't get a fair region and that the reality is never black and white rather it lies in the greyish area. This is where the author has lost my interest into otherwise a very interesting account of the Pakistan's security issues.
Nonetheless, the book offers good insight into the shortcomings to the military's role in security and foreign policy which in my view is genuine and needs to be accepted. The Non State Actors did more harm than benefit. Using them also prove the weakness in our resolve in national interest as NSAs and hired guns always come with a baggage.
However, the author was too lenient and almost gave clean chits to other stake holders in the region namely the United States, India, and Afghanistan. He presented a black and white picture of the region where all the bad came from Pakistan and others were holy cows. One can't underestimate the role of India to counter Pakistan from the Western border and the support it has received in this context. The United States has interest of its own in the region. You can't picture them as holy cows when they spent money to counter the Soviets in Afghanistan and essentially implanted the seeds of extremism in the region ( with the help of Pakistani generals and Arabs of course).
The crucks is that no one's hand is clean when it comes to foreign policy and national interest, you call the spade a spade. I agree that this book is about the problems and the blunders of the Pakistani state, but it won't hurt to recognize the fact that Pakistan didn't get a fair region and that the reality is never black and white rather it lies in the greyish area. This is where the author has lost my interest into otherwise a very interesting account of the Pakistan's security issues.
December 15, 2016
There has been a significant shift in India's policy on Pakistan in the last month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, made a direct reference to the Baloch freedom struggle and said that the people of Balochistan, Gilgit and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir had reached out to him. On the other hand, our immediate neighbour on the West too has escalated its propaganda against India as Kashmir seems to take centre-stage in the bilateral ties.
India has long asserted that talks and terrorism cannot go side by side and that Pakistan needs to stop serving as a "safe heaven" for internationally designated terrorists like Hafeez Sayeed, responsible for the gruesome murder of innocent civilians in India. The irony, however, is the very fact that the innocent citizens of Pakistan are equally affected by terrorism. Consider the recent Quetta attack for instance: On August 8, terrorists attacked the Government Hospital of Quetta with a suicide bombing and shooting in which 70 people were killed and more than 130 injured. Similarly in May last year, eight gunmen had attacked a bus in Karachi and killed at least 46 people. A year earlier, in December 2014, militants entered Army Public School in Peshawar and opened fire on school staff and students, killing 141 people, including 132 schoolchildren. And what has the state done to protect its citizens? "Politics of Surrender", argues one of Pakistan's most respected columnists, Khaled Ahmed in his latest book, Sleepwalking to Surrender: Dealing with Terrorism in Pakistan.
In a little over 450-page hardbound nonfiction title, Ahmed argues reasonably that in the last one and a half decade the non-state actors (which the state had once used to meet its own ends) have weakened the Pakistani establishment.
"Pakistan is still on the brink of becoming a failed state as a consequence of its decades-old practice of using proxy warriors in the region. Because of the weakening of the writ of the state, neither governance nor the economy can function normally; in fact, some say the two strong entities in today's Pakistan are the Taliban and the army", mentions Ahmed. The book reveals, with concrete evidences and examples, that non-state actors, and the extremist terror outfits they control, "pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities", and receive "ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state." Khaled Ahmed, a renowned columnist, does not take to the India bashing mode but in all honestly admits that "the army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda". Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct, and the state's willingness to enter into 'peace talks' with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism.
Interestingly, Ahmed also attempts to contrast the ways in which India deals with its Naxalite-Maoist insurgency to Pakistan's dealing with the Taliban. "India is not endangered by the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency because the ideology of the state of India is not the same as that of the rebels." The author criticises the Pakistani establishment for going soft on the Taliban and offers a lesson from India. Referring to the period during the UPA government, Ahmed rightly points out that although Manmohan Singh expressed his concern over the spread of the Naxalite rebellion, "there were no signs that India would ever 'talk peace' with them from a position of weakness." This is how, the book argues, Pakistan is sleepwalking to surrender by 'legitimizing the terrorist creed of al-Qaeda' and recommending unconditional peace offers to terror organisations from 'a point of weakness'.
"If Pakistan had been watching, it would have learnt that ceasefires with terrorists only give them time to regroup and form larger armies", he laments.
In the wake of the sudden upheaval in the Indo-Pak relations, the eighth chapter of the book, "Modi and Pakistan" becomes significant. This particular chapter of the book loses its contemporary layer as the author is fixed around "will", signifying his assumptions about the Indo-Pak relations from an earlier point of view. The chapter seems to have been penned earlier but carries significance nonetheless. "Prime Minister Sharif can hit it off with Prime Minister Modi", writes Ahmed. "But will be hampered by elements that force the world to call Pakistan a failed state by reason of lost 'internal sovereignty'. Modi will take the trade-first option offered by Sharif; but if he is squeezed on the 'Kashmir-first' option he will join the rest of the world on squeezing Sharif with 'do-more' pressure against Pakistan's 'instruments of foreign policy', the non-state actors."
Ahmed does not shy away from mentioning Lakhvi or Dawood Ibrahim and regrets that "while in jail, Lakhvi has been allowed to wed again and, after regular cohabitation, become the father of a baby." On the other hand, he points out that Dawood Ibrahim, who according to Pakistani establishment, is officially not in Pakistan "but his movement is apparently not restricted by any niceties of security although some Karachi publications have come under pressure for reporting his whereabouts."
Sleepwalking to Surrender is an honest perspective on the turmoil that Pakistan, and as a result India, is undergoing at the hands of terror outfits and serves as an eye-opener to the many lies hurled from across the border.
First published in Beyond Books, The Statesman
http://www.inkstreet.in/2016/08/revie...
India has long asserted that talks and terrorism cannot go side by side and that Pakistan needs to stop serving as a "safe heaven" for internationally designated terrorists like Hafeez Sayeed, responsible for the gruesome murder of innocent civilians in India. The irony, however, is the very fact that the innocent citizens of Pakistan are equally affected by terrorism. Consider the recent Quetta attack for instance: On August 8, terrorists attacked the Government Hospital of Quetta with a suicide bombing and shooting in which 70 people were killed and more than 130 injured. Similarly in May last year, eight gunmen had attacked a bus in Karachi and killed at least 46 people. A year earlier, in December 2014, militants entered Army Public School in Peshawar and opened fire on school staff and students, killing 141 people, including 132 schoolchildren. And what has the state done to protect its citizens? "Politics of Surrender", argues one of Pakistan's most respected columnists, Khaled Ahmed in his latest book, Sleepwalking to Surrender: Dealing with Terrorism in Pakistan.
In a little over 450-page hardbound nonfiction title, Ahmed argues reasonably that in the last one and a half decade the non-state actors (which the state had once used to meet its own ends) have weakened the Pakistani establishment.
"Pakistan is still on the brink of becoming a failed state as a consequence of its decades-old practice of using proxy warriors in the region. Because of the weakening of the writ of the state, neither governance nor the economy can function normally; in fact, some say the two strong entities in today's Pakistan are the Taliban and the army", mentions Ahmed. The book reveals, with concrete evidences and examples, that non-state actors, and the extremist terror outfits they control, "pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities", and receive "ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state." Khaled Ahmed, a renowned columnist, does not take to the India bashing mode but in all honestly admits that "the army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda". Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct, and the state's willingness to enter into 'peace talks' with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism.
Interestingly, Ahmed also attempts to contrast the ways in which India deals with its Naxalite-Maoist insurgency to Pakistan's dealing with the Taliban. "India is not endangered by the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency because the ideology of the state of India is not the same as that of the rebels." The author criticises the Pakistani establishment for going soft on the Taliban and offers a lesson from India. Referring to the period during the UPA government, Ahmed rightly points out that although Manmohan Singh expressed his concern over the spread of the Naxalite rebellion, "there were no signs that India would ever 'talk peace' with them from a position of weakness." This is how, the book argues, Pakistan is sleepwalking to surrender by 'legitimizing the terrorist creed of al-Qaeda' and recommending unconditional peace offers to terror organisations from 'a point of weakness'.
"If Pakistan had been watching, it would have learnt that ceasefires with terrorists only give them time to regroup and form larger armies", he laments.
In the wake of the sudden upheaval in the Indo-Pak relations, the eighth chapter of the book, "Modi and Pakistan" becomes significant. This particular chapter of the book loses its contemporary layer as the author is fixed around "will", signifying his assumptions about the Indo-Pak relations from an earlier point of view. The chapter seems to have been penned earlier but carries significance nonetheless. "Prime Minister Sharif can hit it off with Prime Minister Modi", writes Ahmed. "But will be hampered by elements that force the world to call Pakistan a failed state by reason of lost 'internal sovereignty'. Modi will take the trade-first option offered by Sharif; but if he is squeezed on the 'Kashmir-first' option he will join the rest of the world on squeezing Sharif with 'do-more' pressure against Pakistan's 'instruments of foreign policy', the non-state actors."
Ahmed does not shy away from mentioning Lakhvi or Dawood Ibrahim and regrets that "while in jail, Lakhvi has been allowed to wed again and, after regular cohabitation, become the father of a baby." On the other hand, he points out that Dawood Ibrahim, who according to Pakistani establishment, is officially not in Pakistan "but his movement is apparently not restricted by any niceties of security although some Karachi publications have come under pressure for reporting his whereabouts."
Sleepwalking to Surrender is an honest perspective on the turmoil that Pakistan, and as a result India, is undergoing at the hands of terror outfits and serves as an eye-opener to the many lies hurled from across the border.
First published in Beyond Books, The Statesman
http://www.inkstreet.in/2016/08/revie...
October 30, 2016
The books captures pieces of Pakistan puzzle. It also recounts the gradual erosion of internal sovereignty of the sovereign state of Pakistan because of its misplaced priorities, extractive institutions and dalliance with dangers in the name of ideology. The book, however, has not been written in a linear fashion. It could be considered as a collection of essays on different pieces of Pakistani puzzle where portions or segments will be overlapping and sounds repetitive, but provides crucial connect among the pieces of puzzle.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews